FRACKING HELL -- A MASSIVE ENVIRONMENTAL DISASTER IS UNFOLDING IN COLORADO AND THE MEDIA IS SILENT!

FRACKING HELL -- A MASSIVE ENVIRONMENTAL DISASTER IS UNFOLDING IN COLORADO AND THE MEDIA IS SILENT!

THOUSANDS of gas wells across Colorado are underwater. Huge storage tanks of carcinogenic and neurotoxic chemicals are being displaced and overturned by the massive floodwaters. These toxins will end up polluting the soil, air and groundwater for decades at least!

Photo taken by a resident of Weld County, Colorado:

This is exactly happens when you frack in a flood plain!  Obviously greed came into play over safety issues when permits were issued.

From the Denver Post: 

“Oil drums, tanks and other industrial debris mixed into the swollen river flowing northeast. County officials did not give locations of where the pipeline broke and where other pipelines were compromised.
While the water levels in the South Platte appear to be receding slightly, bridges over the South Platte have been closed as water overflowed the bridges at least as far east as Morgan County.
Oil and gas industry crews have been monitoring wells drilled into the flood plain east of Greeley in Weld County.
One pipeline has broken and is leaking, Weld County Emergency Manager Roy Rudisill. Other industry pipelines are sagging as saturated sediment erodes around the expanding river.
Industry crews “are shutting in the lines, shutting in the wells,” Rudisill said.
In a statement, Gary Wockner, of Clean Water Action, said “Fracking and operating oil and gas facilities in floodplains is extremely risky. Flood waters can topple facilities and spread oil, gas, and cancer-causing fracking chemicals across vast landscapes making contamination and clean-up efforts exponentially worse and more complicated.”

Gas line rupture east of Greeley:

 From The Daily Camera:


"Inundated along with roads, bridges, houses and farms are thousands of oil and gas wells and associated condensate tanks and ponds in northeast Boulder County and southwest Weld County.

Anti-fracking activists say the industry needs to account for what types of chemicals may be contaminating soil and groundwater in the area around these wells.

The concentration of oil and gas wells in flood-prone areas speaks to one more risk of what they see as a dangerous industry.

Regulators say they agree these well sites could pose a contamination risk, and they will get out to assess the damage as soon as it's feasible.

An Encana Oil and Gas representative said many wells were "shut in" in anticipation of the flood to minimize the risk.

Lafayette-based anti-fracking activist Cliff Willmeng said he spent two days "zig-zagging" across Weld and Boulder counties documenting flooded drilling sites, mostly along the drainageway of the St. Vrain River. He observed "hundreds" of wells that were inundated. He also saw many condensate tanks that hold waste material from fracking at odd angles or even overturned.

"It's clear that the density of the oil and gas activity there did not respect where the water would go," Willmeng said. "What we immediately need to know is what is leaking and we need a full detailed report of what that is. This is washing across agricultural land and into the waterways. Now we have to discuss what type of exposure the human population is going to have to suffer through."

Colorado Oil and Gas Association President Tisha Schuller said in an email that the industry prepares and drills for these types of natural disasters and opened 24-hour incident command centers to monitor wells and mitigate potential hazards.

"We are working around the clock to monitor, prevent, and address the effects of flooding," she said. "In cases where personnel could be freed up, they have been made available to communities for flood rescue and relief efforts."

A spokesman for the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission said the agency is aware of the potential for contamination from flooded drilling sites, but there simply is no way to get to those sites while flooding is ongoing and while resources are concentrated on saving lives.

"COGCC will be working with state and local authorities to assess risks and, where necessary, provide environmental response and remediation," said Todd Hartman, a spokesman for the Department of Natural Resources.

Hartman said many operators have added security to tanks, like chains to make sure they don't float away, though aerial photographs have shown floating and drifting tanks in some flooded areas.

Also, many operators "shut in" or closed down well operations in anticipation of flooding.

Wendy Wiedenbeck, a spokeswoman for Encana, a major gas driller in the region, said in a news release that the company shut-in production at wells throughout the affected areas and has remote monitoring to stop production at additional wells if they are affected by flooding.

Crews are conducting site-by-site visits as it becomes safe to do so, she said.

Willmeng said shutting-in does not isolate all the hydrocarbons in case of flooding. He's also concerned that there simply aren't enough inspectors to deal with all the wells.

Andrew Barth, a city spokesman working with the Boulder Office of Emergency Management during the disaster, said local officials are well aware of potential problems from drilling wells, as well as from flooded gas stations and industrial sites. However, inspections and assessment will have to wait until the immediate threat to life and safety has passed.

"We've seen those same pictures, and we are concerned," he said. "We are going to go out and look at those as once we're out of the immediate search and rescue phase."

More Photos in this article:

http://intellihub.com/2013/09/16/colorado-flood-creates-fracking-chemical-spill-report/ 

"BRINE TRUCK" WRECK.. BUT NO MENTION OF GAS, FRACKING OR DRILLING WHATSOEVER!

But surely it was ONLY salt brine.. from a "well". Wonder why the road was shut down in both directions and the Dept of Environmental Protection was called?

Walton, Roane County , West Virginia

ROANE COUNTY WRECK: Route 119 Near Walton Shut Down After Tank Of Salt Brine Snaps Off Truck 

Route 119 near Walton in Roane County was shut down Monday afternoon when a tank of salt brine snapped off a truck and struck a utility pole, an emergency dispatcher said.

The accident happened about 12:50 p.m. on Route 119 near Plant Road, the dispatcher said. The truck was hauling salt brine water from a well.

No injuries were reported, but the road was shut down in both directions.

The dispatcher said the Division of Environmental Protection was on its way to investigation. The Roane County Sheriff's Department was at the scene.

LINK

CRUCIAL TOOL COULDN'T BE USED TO CHECK PIPELINE THAT BLEW UP

 The key point here is that according to a recent NTSB report, 61 percent of the nation's pipelines cannot physically accommodate pigs and it could cost companies about $12 billion to retrofit the nation's pipes to make them do so... and they are NOT compelled to do so. In the meantime, it seems likely that other pipelines of the same age and older will continue to rupture based on the findings of extreme thinning in the wall of the exploded section with no way to check them.

Columbia Gas Transmission officials have reported that the pipeline that exploded last week could not be checked for corrosion using one important pipeline safety tool, Kanawha County officials said Monday.

The 20-inch diameter natural gas transmission line showed signs of external corrosion, according to the National Transportation Safety Board, which is investigating the incident. The pipe had thinned in places to about a third of the thickness it ought to have been, the NTSB said.

Pipeline safety advocates - including the NTSB - recommend pipes be tested for such corrosion using "smart pigs," which are metal tools that travel through a pipeline to check the pipe for irregularities, including cracks and corrosion.

"The pipe that ruptured did not have valves on it that would accept the pig," said Kanawha fire coordinator C.W. Sigman, who met Monday with Columbia representatives.

Kanawha County Commission President Kent Carper confirmed Sigman's account of the meeting.
"It is our understanding that the ruptured pipe was not piggable," Carper said through a spokeswoman.
Columbia is a subsidiary of Indiana-based NiSource. Last week, one of its 20-inch diameter transmission lines ruptured and filled the sky with fire, scorched the earth and ruined the surface of a segment of Interstate 77. Miraculously, nobody was injured or killed.

The company did not comment on that pipe's ability to handle a smart pig, citing the NTSB's ongoing investigation of the explosion.

Pipeline safety advocates have argued smart pigs are a key way to ensure the structural integrity of pipelines.
"I think those are kind of the gold standards for measuring corrosion," said Carl Weimer, head of the Pipeline Safety Trust, a Bellingham, Wash.-based group devoted to improving pipeline safety.

Following a deadly pipeline explosion in San Bruno, Calif., the NTSB recommended all gas transmission pipelines be upgraded to accommodate smart pigs, with priority given to older pipelines.

According to a recent NTSB report, 61 percent of the nation's pipelines cannot physically accommodate pigs and it could cost companies about $12 billion to retrofit the nation's pipes to make them do so.

Weimer said only about 7 percent of the nation's pipelines are required to run smart pigs.
Sigman said Columbia plans to upgrade the exploded pipeline so it can accommodate a smart pig - when and if it reopens.

"I think they are going to upgrade it to where they can pig it," Sigman said of the pipeline.

But it will be a long time before the pipeline is back in service, Sigman said the company told him.
Columbia operates two other lines in the area.

The company does not believe the explosion harmed either of those two lines.

Both of the lines that did not explode had been pigged in 2009, Sigman said. (He had previously said the year was 2008.)

County officials and Columbia representatives met at 5 p.m. Monday to talk about the company's plan to restart the second of the two pipelines near the one that exploded.

A 30-inch line and 26-inch line are both within 200 feet of the exploded pipe.

The lines help supply demand to customers near Washington.

The 26-inch line, known as SM-86, was back in service the night of the explosion. It is 183 feet from the exploded pipe, according to a company plan.

"Pressure was restored slowly over a 2.5-hour period to verify the integrity of the pipeline," the company told the state Public Service Commission.

As it slowly put gas back into the line, the company had people patrolling the pipe by foot and by helicopter looking for leaks.

Columbia has developed a similar plan to return the 30-inch line known as the "SM-86 loop" to service on Wednesday.

That line is 53 feet north of the exploded pipe, according to the company plan.

The company said it could do so without closing either Interstate 77 or Kanawha 21 (Sissonville Drive).

The company had previously floated the idea of rerouting traffic in the Sissonville area while the company gradually refilled the SM-86 loops with gas. The state Department of Transportation was not a fan of the idea, which could have closed a major interstate for several hours the week before Christmas.

Columbia also hired Det Norske Veritas, an international risk management company, to study whether last week's explosion could have damaged the 30-inch line nearest the ruptured pipe.

The consultant, known as DNK, concluded it was unlikely the nearby pipe had suffered any damage.

Citing another report by the Pipeline Research Council International, DNK said, "a spacing of at least 25 feet, regardless of other factors such as pipe diameter, gas flow in the second pipeline, etc., is sufficient to reduce possible thermal damage to parallel pipelines." The nearby pipe was more than twice that distance from the ruptured pipe.

But the consultant said there was "finite, albeit small, probability that a near critical defect existed" just before the flow of gas was stopped to the pipe. Columbia shut off the flow of gas to all three pipes in the hour following the explosion.

"This defect could grow to a critical size as a result of the large pressure cycle associated with depressurization and re-pressurization of the pipeline, resulting in a rupture or leak," DNK cautioned.
Columbia said it was confident it could return its pipeline to service this week in a "slow and controlled manager, gradually increasing supply and pressure."

"In addition to performing the analysis to confirm that the incident did not affect Line SM-86 Loop in the vicinity of the incident, Columbia reviewed past inspection and testing data for Line SM-86 Loop to further ensure the safety of the pipeline," company spokeswoman Chevalier Mayes said in an email.

"A detailed review of these past inspections confirms that the lines are safe to return to service, and the data from these past inspections was reviewed in detail with representatives of the (state and federal pipeline regulation agencies)."

Some of the data for that analysis came from a smart pig inspection in 2009, Columbia told the state PSC.

LINK 

WVA PIPELINE SAFETY INVESTIGATION

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — The U.S. Senate Commerce Committee will examine pipeline safety during a field hearing later this month in West Virginia, where a December explosion destroyed several homes and cooked a section of Interstate 77.

Sen. Jay Rockefeller, the Democrat who chairs the panel, said Monday he will convene the hearing Jan. 28 in Charleston. A list of witnesses for the hearing is still being developed, a spokesman said.

On Dec. 11, 2012, a 20-inch Columbia Gas Transmission line ruptured, triggering a massive fire and shutting down a major traffic artery near Sissonville, about 15 miles from Charleston.

The National Transportation Safety Board, which is investigating the cause, has said the line showed signs of external corrosion and had thinned to about one-third of the recommended thickness in some spots. The Office of Pipeline Safety also said in a preliminary report that "general wall thinning is a major factor in the cause of the failure."


"The Sissonville explosion shook West Virginia quite literally," Rockefeller said, "and served as a stark reminder that pipeline safety is serious. And oversight is critically important."

Although there were no serious injuries in Sissonville, Rockefeller said things could have been worse.

"And West Virginians want to know everything is being done to prevent accidents — and disasters," he said.

The hearing will be the fourth the committee has held on pipeline safety while Rockefeller has chaired it.

Among other things, the Commerce Committee will review the implementation of the Pipeline Safety, Regulatory Certainty and Job Creation Act of 2011, he said. It will also review the findings of a Government Accountability Office study expected Jan. 23 on how well prepared pipeline operators are to handle a hazardous liquid or gas release.

Columbia Gas Transmission is a subsidiary of Indiana-based NiSource.

The company said Monday it can't predict when the damaged pipeline will be back in service. But NiSource is working with federal, state and local officials "to take every step necessary to ensure the safety of our pipeline system," it said in an e-mail.


LINK



The company that owns and operates the natural gas pipeline that exploded in has a lengthy record of pipeline safety violations and federal enforcement actions, including several recent incidents in West Virginia.
ccording to records obtained from the federal Pipeline and Hazard Materials Administration, the Columbia Gas Transmission Corp. (CGT Corp.), which owns and operates the pipeline that exploded in an enormous fireball near Sissonville, West Virginia, has been involved in 14 separate natural gas pipeline safety incidents since February 2011, including five in West Virginia.

Columbia is a wholly owned subsidiary of NiSource, one of America’s largest energy companies.

One of these incidents, on Aug. 25, 2012, in Elyria, Ohio, sent four people to the hospital with serious injuries. Together, the 14 incidents accounted for nearly $1.5 million in property damage.

According to the PHMSA records, nine of the 14 incidents were caused by equipment failure or corrosion, including the most recent incident, which occurred on Oct. 30 in Flat Top, West Virginia, which involved a malfunction of controls related to relief equipment.

In the I-77 blast, which sent flames shooting 100 feet into the air and melted a section of Interstate 77 and destroyed four nearby homes, investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board said, it took Columbia more than an hour to isolate the section of the pipeline where the explosion occurred and shut off the flow of gas to the pipeline.

During the same time period, PHMSA opened 11 separate enforcement actions involving alleged pipeline safety violations by Columbia. Five of those investigations are still underway. PHMSA is currently seeking more than $250,000 in civil penalties in connection with the investigations. The CGT Corp. paid a fine of $67,800 in connection with one investigation, in which the agency cited the company for failing to continuously monitor the concentration of gas in the air at the Claysville compressor station in Pennsylvania.

Damon Hill, a spokesperson for PHMSA, explained the difference in the number of incidents compared to the number of enforcement actions, saying that not every pipeline incident triggers an enforcement action.

“Every incident is investigated,” Hill told NaturalGasWatch.org, “but not every investigation results in an enforcement action.”